Wednesday, October 1, 2008

I've Been Tagged! Banned Book Week Meme

How many have YOU read?

Celebrating Banned Book Week 2008, here is the ALA's list of the 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990 through 2000.

How to Play:

1: Copy this list.
2: Highlight the ones you have read (or at least remember reading) in RED.
3: Tag five people to play.

The List:

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling (well, part of it anyway)
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (just bought this one for my daughter!)
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (does it count if I saw the movie?)
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier


Total: 21

I'll go one step further: I will commit to reading at least 10 more books off this list before Banned Books Week of 2009. Anyone care to join me?

TAG YOU’RE IT:

Jackie, at Literary Escapism
Shannon, at What Women Read
Betsy, at The Dog's Pajamas
Susan, at Seaside Book Worm Blogger
Ms. Bitchpants, at Bitchpants: Activate!

Come back and leave a comment with a link if you choose to participate!

7 comments:

Ciara said...

wow. That's quite the challenge. Since my list was truly pathetic, I just might have to take you up on the dare. *shivers in boots* Suggestions on where to start?
Thanks for honoring BBW!

Nicola O. said...

Well, not that I'm any big expert, but the Judy Blume titles are all pretty good YA stuff. The Handmaid's Tale is shiver-making speculative fiction and not for those with paranoiac tendencies (because it could REALLY HAPPEN). Based on your thoughts about Kushiel, I'd say skip the Anne Rice erotica.

I totally loved Flowers for Algernon and highly recommend. Same for Bridge to Terabithia.

Just for the sake of cultural literacy, I'd say you should get To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye under your belt.

As for me, I've never read anything by Toni Morrison, so I'll sample that. I love Kurt Vonnegut so it will be no hardship to read Slaughterhouse-Five. The Nancy Friday title intrigues me. And I have an 8-year-old, so I think the time is near when I should be checking out some books for kids on puberty anyhow. I'll have to think about the rest.

I'll skip the Stephen King books though. I still have nightmares from reading Firestarter when I was babysitting in 1983.

Anonymous said...

What is Shel Silverstein doing on the list? I love his poetry. :)

I'm taking you up on your challenge, although I'm not guaranteeing 10 books. I only found 9 that caught my eye. Unless I can count the last two books in the Rice series separately. :)

Nicola O. said...

Yay! It's worth noticing that the list is for books challenged between 1990 and 2000. I think there are some more recent lists for the last several years -- I'd say those can count too.

Betsy O'Donovan said...

Ooh, fun! I've been on an internet diet lately (maintenance blogging and Facebook only), but I LOVE this meme. Here's my post: http://thedogspajamas.blogspot.com/2008/10/tagged-banned-books.html

Anonymous said...

i've read the Steven King books and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, which is among my favorites of all time!!

How come Bukowski and henry Miller didn't make the list??

Nicola O. said...

If you read the ALA site, these are books that have "challenged," ie, librarians have received requests to remove them from the shelves. So there is a big skew toward children's books with controversial or sexual content. Which is a gray area, really; managing age-appropriate material is not the same as censorship or banning, in my mind.

Also, this list is bounced against challenges over a specific time period, so it's possible that bukowski and miller just haven't been much read much or asked about lately. :-)

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